Chapter 1 Summary

Chapter 1 introduces widow Florence Green and some of the inhabitants of Hardborough, East Anglia in 1959. Hardborough is an isolated, English, seaside town described as being like an island between sea and river. Its people are used to the isolation and lack of facilities. Listed as the towns' lonely are the bank manager; naturalists; the reed cutter; the postman; Mr. Raven, the marshman; Mr. Brundish, a recluse from a long line of old Suffolk families; and Florence Green herself.

Florence struggles with the notion of using the inheritance from her husband's death to open a bookshop in the abandoned 500 year old building known as the 'Old House.' She likens her struggle to those of a heron and an eel in mid-flight. The heron is trying to devour the eel while still flying, and the eel is trying to struggle free. She surmises they...